Book Review - Birds of Japan (2018)

We are birders who base in HK, and love going Japan for food, toys and especially birds. Mark Brazil’s Birds of East Asia is always one of the most useful bird guide to us so when we knew he was writing a Japan bird guide (again), we immediately pre-ordered one.

And the copy finally arrived yesterday, so I quickly opened box and made a short review here.

Birds of Japan

You can say the Birds of Japan is a revised edition of Birds of East Asia and focus on one particular country right now. The drawings are BoEA style, and so the writings. So it is very user friendly tobirders who read BoEA before. However, as many drawings are using the one in BoEA, some pictures can be misleading in identification. For example, you can easily tell the difference of Swinhoe’s / Pintail / Latham Snipe just by the pictures in book but never a real case in field until you see their tail clearly!

the drawings and style are same as BoEA 

picture of snipes, you can tell the difference of these species by drawings but not a case in field

compare to BoEA, a pdf version

In this version, it is not surprised to see many new species which were first recorded in Japan or newly split by IOC.

Orii Tit, or Iriomote Tit, a recent split and we missed in Iriomotejima

Taxonomy mainly followed IOC, but some ‘advanced split’ is more likely following HBW / Birdlife.

the robins are split in this book, like in HBW / Birdlife

compare to BoEA, a pdf version

Overall, the information here is very up-to-datea and this is a highly recommended book for birders in / visiting E Asia and Japan.